The New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival took over the Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel in Iselin, NJ this weekend for three days of scary movies, celebrities, cosplay, and more. While much of the fun was held in the convention and ballrooms downstairs, two viewing rooms were set up on the second floor for special screenings, as well as for film festival entrants. I took time to catch a block of short films, as well as a screening of a horror film that had been on my radar for a long time.

This past weekend, the Garden State became a true state of horror as the Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel in Iselin, NJ hosted the New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival. Fans were lining up an hour before the doors opened as Father Evil greeted them. The convention floor stretched for several rooms of the beautiful hotel with vendors lining the halls throughout. Featured guests were stationed throughout, offering autographs and photos to eager fans. Like many conventions, photo-ops with the guests were available. Upstairs, there were two screening rooms; the larger dedicated to special film screenings and Q&A sessions, while the smaller hosted festival entrants, both full-length and short films.

Horror director Eli Roth‘s feature directorial debut, Cabin Fever, was released 14 years ago already. Which means, in current Hollywood, that it’s long overdue for a remake. Surprise!

Yes indeed, Cabin Fever is being remade. And not only that, it’s doing so very quickly (and a bit strangely). Instead of doing the usual remake thing where an existing property is rewritten and reworked and recycled and all that jazz, a more familiar path is being traveled here. The remake already has its cast and begins filming this week, and it will be made using the exact same script Roth (who returns as an executive producer) and Randy Pearlstein wrote for the original through a new vision from director Travis Zariwny.

The Goonies and Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin has joined the cast of Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, the upcoming installment in the franchise started by Eli Roth’s 2002 indie horror, Cabin Fever.

The movie is actually one of two new movies on the way, the other titled Cabin Fever: Outbreak. When we first told you about the two movies last November, they were said to be sequels. Now it’s unclear what they are. Some say a reboot or spin-offs, perhaps prequels…who knows. But they are Cabin Fever movies, that much is true.

When Eli Roth‘s directorial debut Cabin Fever first hit theater screens back in September 2003 it had been riding a mighty wave of hype following several successful film festival showings.

Unfortunately that hype and the modest marketing muscle that a pre-Saw Lionsgate (back when they were Lions Gate) could muster couldn’t translate to boffo box office for Roth’s movie. Despite the failure of Cabin Fever to become a new blockbuster horror franchise the film managed to gross $30 million worldwide off a $1.5 million production budget and did even better on home video.

Last summer I saw Rob Zombie’s Halloween II and I didn’t think I would see a worse film that year and it turns out I didn’t (and mind you I saw Old Dogs). Four months into 2010 and I now believe I will not see a worse film this year than Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, the long-awaited follow-up to the 2003 horror comedy that established Eli Roth — who had nothing to do with the sequel — as one of the most promising genre filmmakers to come along in years. Halfway through its 86 excruciating minutes I couldn’t wait to get this hunk of rancid shit out of my DVD player. Whenever I see a particularly bad movie I’m left feeling depressed and old, but after watching Cabin Fever 2 nearly a week after my 31st birthday I wanted to lock myself in my bedroom, close the blinds, and lay on the floor in the fetal position. Instead I went out on my front porch, lit up a cigarette, and spent several minutes reflecting on this movie and life in general. The morning weather had been cold and overcast yet as I stood outside basking in the cool March weather the sun started to emerge from behind a thick wall of clouds. It improved my mood somewhat but my opinion for the movie hadn’t changed.

I hate Cabin Fever 2 with a fiery passion and I feel it’s my duty to warn all my fellow movie buffs and horror fans to avoid this movie no matter the cost. Because I care. People who know me also know I’m a huge horror fan. I grew up watching horror films even during my earlier years when some would advise against subjecting an impressionable young mind to the sinful pleasures contained within the faded, flaking video boxes of various sizes (remember the big box?). To me the thrill of watching a scary movie was the greatest drug. I’ve seen so many over the years that I’m practically immune to whatever jolts, shocks, and gratuitous gore the horror filmmakers of today can throw at me.